Shanda Games Q2 2011 Profit Flat YoY
PR Newswire Asia, 8/24/11
Chinese online game developer and operator Shanda Games (Nasdaq: GAME) today announced its unaudited consolidated financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011. Net revenues were RMB 1.32 bln (USD 204.0 mln), up 18.7% YoY and 5.4% QoQ.
Net income was RMB 305.2 mln (USD 47.2 mln), up 0.3% YoY and down 2.5% QoQ. The QoQ decrease was primarily due to a decline in government financial incentives, which totaled RMB 10.4 mln (USD 1.6 mln) in Q2 2011, compared with RMB 33.2 mln in Q1 2011.
Net revenues from MMORPGs, which represents net MMORPG revenues generated in China, were RMB 1.17 bln (USD 180.1 mln), representing an increase of 16.5% from RMB 1 bln in the second quarter of 2010 and 6.7% from RMB 1.09 bln in the first quarter of 2011. The quarter-over quarter-increase was primarily due to the successful launch of self-developed MMORPG Legend of Immortals in mid-May and the strong performance of expansion packs released for licensed MMORPG The Legend of Mir 2 and self-developed martial arts-themed MMORPG World of Legend (Woool).
Net revenues from advanced casual games, which represents net advanced casual game revenues generated in China, were RMB 81.6 mln (USD 12.6 mln), representing an increase of 16.4% from RMB 70.1 mln in the second quarter of 2010 and a decrease of 11.8% from RMB 92.5 mln in the first quarter of 2011. The quarter-over-quarter decrease was mainly due to typical seasonal weakness for advanced casual games given that the first quarter of each year includes the winter holidays and Chinese New Year's.
Other revenues, which primarily represents net overseas revenues generated from game licensing, game operations, and advertising, were RMB 73.1 mln (USD 11.3 mln) in the second quarter of 2011, representing increases of 75.7% from RMB 41.6 mln in the second quarter of 2010 and 8.6% from RMB 67.3 mln in the first quarter of 2011. The quarter-over-quarter growth was primarily due to increased overseas licensing revenues in the second quarter of 2011.
Starting from the second quarter of 2011, Shanda Games will begin providing investors with average Monthly Active Users (average MAUs), average Monthly Paying Users (average MPUs), and Monthly Average Revenue per Paying User (monthly ARPU) as it believes that these operating metrics provide a more meaningful understanding of the underlying performance and the quarter-to-quarter trends of its business. Shanda Games will stop providing quarterly APA and ARPU figures starting from the third quarter of 2011. MAUs refers to the number of users who play online games during a calendar month. Average MAUs is the average of the MAUs for each calendar month during a given period. MPUs refers to the number of paying users for online games during a calendar month. Average MPUs is the average of the MPUs for each calendar month during a given period. Quarterly APA refers to the number of paying users for online games during a calendar quarter.
Average MAUs for all the games operated in China were 24.0 mln in Q2 2011, compared with 20.3 mln in Q1 2011. The sequential increase in average MAUs in the second quarter was mainly attributed to the launch of Legend of Immortals in mid-May.
Average MPUs for all the games operated in China were 4.4 mln in Q2 2011, compared with 4.6 mln in Q1 2011. The sequential decrease was mainly due to seasonality for advanced casual games in the second quarter, since more gamers tend to be active during the winter holidays and Chinese New Year's which fall on the first quarter. In addition, Shanda Games launched major expansion packs for licensed side-scrolling combat game MapleStory and self-developed (acquired) 3D fantasy MMORPG Fengyun Online during the first quarter of 2011 but did not launch expansion packs with the similar scale during the second quarter of 2011.
Monthly ARPU for all the games operated in China was RMB 94.6 in Q2 2011, compared with RMB 85.2 in Q1 2011.
For MMORPGs, quarterly Active Paying Accounts (APA) decreased 4.0% QoQ to 9.46 mln and, for advanced casual games, quarterly APA decreased 29.6% QoQ to 0.64 mln.
On July 4, Taiwanese game operator Soft-World International began open beta testing for Shanda Games' self-developed 3D fantasy MMORPG Hades Realm II in Taiwan.
On July 26, Nexon America, the US subsidiary of Korean game developer and operator Nexon, began open beta testing for Shanda Games' licensed 3D MMORPG Dragon Nest in the US.
On August 17, Shanda Games began open beta testing for Dragon Nest in Singapore and Malaysia.
To view Shanda Games' full earnings report, please click here.
Keywords: operating rights MAU MPU casual game Dragon Nest Fengyun Online Legend of Mir 2 Nexon Shanda Shanda Games World of Legend ARPU overseas profit revenue users open beta MMORPG APA Malaysia MapleStory Singapore Soft-World International Taiwan Hades Realm II Legend of Immortals Q2 2011 licensed game online gaming SNDA GAME self-developed game 3D game fiscal report USA
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